Category: 2010

For the next fantasy baseball primer, the folks at Sports of Boston tackeled the Top 30 First Basemen. Here are my rankings:

Albert Pujols

Prince Fielder

Miguel Cabrera

Adrian Gonzalez

Mark Teixeira

Kevin Youkilis

Joey Votto

Carlos Pena

Ryan Howard

Justin Morneau

Adam Dunn

Lance Berkman

Nick Johnson

Todd Helton

Chris Davis

Billy Butler

Adam LaRoche

Derrek Lee

Kendry Morales

Nick Swisher

Garrett Jones

Conor Jackson

Paul Konerko

Matt LaPorta

Jeff Clement

Daric Barton

James Loney

Russell Branyon

Garrett Atkins

Jorge Cantu

I’m not a believer in Garrett Jones, but if he’s your second 1B or DH or a guy off the bench he’s a great pickup. On the whole, first base is deep. Pujols is still top of the class, but Prince Fielder, Mark Teixeira, and Joey Votto are going to be right on his tail, depending on which categories you use in your league.

Over at Sports of Boston we started with the Top 20 Catchers for fantasy in 2010. Here are my picks:

Joe MauerVictor MartinezBrain MccannMiguel MonteroMatt WeitersMike NapoliJorge PosadaChris IannettaYadier MolinaGeovany SotoKurt SuzukiRyan DoumitCarlos RuizRussell MartinA.J. PierzynskiKelly ShoppachNick HundleyBengie MolinaCarlos SantanaGerald LairdIn a 12 team league with one catcher, there is a lot of value here. If you are in a two catcher league, things don’t look quite as nice.

With the 2010 season approaching it’s time again to think about your fantasy team. As part of that I’m looking forward to my own drafts and trying to determing the most valuable players to target. Over at Sports of Boston I’ve been contributing fantasy positional ranking each week during out fantasy preparation series. As they are posted, I’ll put my picks up here and link to the full series.

The Red Sox probably will make a big trade; they have the prospects, they have the need, and they don’t like bidding on free agents. Ortiz, Lowell, and Beckett will all, most likely, walk away next year as Type A free agents. If Papelbon is still on the team after 2011, he probably will too. That’s a lot of extra picks to restock the farm from an Adrian Gonzalez trade.

Peter Gammons also mentioned the (highly unlikely) possibility that Beckett is traded. Would a package like the Indians got for Cliff Lee do it? The Erik Bedard deal? They could pile up on prospects over the next couple years and even a big FA signing like Matt Holliday would only take away one of those picks. They know the Rays and O’s are lurking and the Yankees will be spending; the Red Sox won’t stand still.

It was hardly a surprise last year that the Yankees acquired C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeria, and A.J. Burnett, though it was speculated that Derek Lowe could have fulled one of the pitching needs; it was clear the Bronx Bombers had plenty of dollars coming off the books.

This year the market doesn’t have quite the supply of stars to refill their roster, but with Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Xavier Nady, and Andy Pettitte all set to leave as free agents, the AL East is likely to add a few fresh faces. Just these four players open up $38 million of 2009’s $201 million payroll.

With nearly $40 million to spend it isn’t unreasonable for the Yankees to sign two of the premier free agents – Matt Holliday, Jason Bay, John Lackey – and solve their outfield and DH holes or shore up a rotation that has seen Joba Chamberlain struggle, Phil Hughes take to the 8th inning very well, and Ian Kennedy fail to stay healthy.

If offense if their goal, signing both Bay and Holliday would be possible with a enough left over to lure one fo the Injured Threesome of Ben Sheets, Rich Harden, and Erik Bedard to the Bronx for a year.